Father, Son Charged In Burglary Attempt

October 22, 1999|By KATHY BUSHOUSE Staff Writer

Some men take their sons fishing. Others play catch. Stacey Dewayne Tripp taught his teen-age son the finer points of burglary, deputies say.

Broward Sheriff's deputies say they caught the duo Wednesday night, after Tripp, 36, and his 17-year-old son tried to break into a house in the 3000 block of Northeast First Avenue in unincorporated Broward County, near Pompano Beach.

"You've heard of family businesses. Well, this is a father and son who are apparently in the business of burglarizing homes," said sheriff's office spokesman Kirk Englehardt.

The duo knocked on the front door of the house, not knowing that Brian Coveney, 23, was inside, Englehardt said. There wasn't a car parked out front, so the two thought no one was home, he said.

Coveney told deputies he didn't open the door, and watched as the younger Tripp walked to the back of the house and tried to bust through a window while the elder Tripp stood guard out front.

While the younger Tripp tried to get in the window, Coveney told deputies he peeked through the window blinds and scared the younger Tripp. The pair fled.

Minutes later, a deputy nabbed them as they tried to get away. "Apparently they went the wrong direction for them, the right direction for us," Englehardt said.

Stacey Tripp was booked into the Broward County jail on $5,000 bond, and his son was taken to the county's Juvenile Intervention Facility.

Both Tripps have criminal records, Englehardt said. "[Detectives] are telling me [the son's] past is even more colorful than his father's," he said.